Augusta critics cheapen real discrimination
By Wendy McElroy
web posted March 3, 2003
Martha Burk is lashing out once more against the males-only
policy of the privately owned Augusta National Golf Club
(ANGC), which hosts the Masters tournament.
Burk claims playing golf with "the boys" is a moral right, thereby
cheapening every complaint of real discrimination. The "right to
golf" makes a mockery of centuries of true struggle by women
and minorities.
Burk's National Council of Women's Organizations (NCWO)
and Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition are expected to
protest at the weeklong Masters tournament, which starts on
April 7.
What "right" do women have to play golf on someone else's
private property? None whatsoever. What moral or legal
obligation does anyone have to provide women with golf? None
whatsoever.
William (Hootie) Johnson, head of the ANGC, correctly argues
the club's "membership is single gender, just as many other
organizations and clubs all across America. These would include
junior Leagues, sororities, fraternities, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts
and countless others. And we all have a moral and legal right to
organize our clubs the way we wish."
As long as no tax money is involved, every man and woman
should be free to associate with whomever they wish and
peacefully to discriminate with their own property.
Sadly, those arguing for freedom of association ˇ including
Hootie ˇ often damage their own cause. By taking the debate
seriously they provide a forum for people who should be
derisively laughed off the stage. They allow Burk to convert the
"dilemma" of golfless, middle-class women into a real news
story.
Burk's high-profile campaign against ANGC was able to grab
media attention only because of the hyperbolic reaction of
Hootie, who made the mistake of going public with private
correspondence in a press statement. Bob Verdi, senior writer
for Golf Digest and Golf World, was correct in stating it was
Johnson's response to Burk that sparked media interest.
Burk herself admits rebuking the ANGC was "such a small part
off our [NCWO's] agenda. It was almost trivial" but "because of
the media attention ... it has become major."
Hootie is showing commendable restraint this year. But other
factions in the city of Augusta itself are overreacting and
snapping at Burk's bait. This is the reaction she is trying to
provoke. For example, Burk recently established the Web site
AugustaDiscriminates.com, which many have reasonably
interpreted to be a smear of the entire city.
On Feb. 18, in specific response to the ANGC controversy, the
Augusta Richmond County Commission created new regulations
to control protests. For example, protesters must apply for a
permit 20 days before a demonstration.
Such regulations have "backroom politics" written all over them.
One of the commissioners stated the controversial measure was
"the result of a compromise that puts the city's fire department in
an inner-city office building." According to a news report on the
PGA Web site: "The five white commissioners supported the
new law; all five blacks opposed it, saying they believed the
changes were intended to stifle civil rights. Augusta Mayor Bob
Young, who is white, cast the deciding vote Tuesday to break a
5-5 tie."
Burk has already declared such regulations a violation of civil
rights. Given the opposition of the black commissioners to the
vote, Jackson's reaction is predictable. Thus a ridiculous claim of
discrimination is being lent the trappings of a just cause by
people who overreact and try to suppress it.
Other Hootie supporters are acting sanely. Two groups ˇ
WAMB (Women Against Martha Burk) and The Burk Stops
Here ˇ have asked the city of Augusta for permits to demonstrate
against ... Martha Burk. WAMB pledges to stage a "light-
hearted" protest, which is the ideal response to women's "right to
golf." The one thing that Burk and Jackson most fear is receiving
the reaction they most deserve: to have people laugh in their
faces.
It is Burk's organization ˇ not the ANGC ˇ that stands to lose
most of its membership. Kimberly Schuld, author of The Guide
to Feminist Organizations, has investigated NCWO and found it
to be largely an empty shell of an organization.
Schuld explains most of the members in Burk's group are
inactive. And many are likely to shy away from bad publicity,
especially the sort of publicity Rep. Sue Burmeister, R-Augusta,
is bringing to bear on the National Foundation of Women
Legislators to withdraw from the NCWO. Burmeister states, "I
don't like it that I have Martha Burk coming down to my district
and trying to force a private organization to do something they
don't wish to do."
Hootie and the Augusta commissioners should take notes from
Burmeister and WAMB. Burk deserves derision for making
women's rights into a circus of trivial privileges.
The "right to golf" is both laughable and obscene. Laughable
because this is what political correctness has been reduced to ˇ
arguing for the right of affluent women to spend leisure time
hitting a small ball around someone else's property where they
are not wanted. Obscene because it is an offense to every
woman or minority who has suffered genuine harm through
discrimination.
Laugh or cry, but do not rise to Burk's bait.
Wendy McElroy is the editor of ifeminists.com and a research
fellow for The Independent Institute in Oakland, Calif. She is the
author and editor of many books and articles, including the new
book, Liberty for Women: Freedom and Feminism in the 21st
Century (Ivan R. Dee/Independent Institute, 2002). She lives
with her husband in Canada.
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